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1893 Dr. Kiley spoke of the appearance of the insect iu Virginia at 

 the meeting' of this association; but California and Virginia are both 

 quite remote from New Jersey, and I failed to make myself acquainted 

 with the appearance of the creature. In the autumn of 1893 I inves- 

 tigated the appearance of the pear psylla in a Delaware liiver nursery 

 and incidentally noticed that some of the trees were very scaly. [ recom- 

 mended that they be scrubbed ; but again failed to suspect their iden- 

 tity. It is a matter of some consolation that another station entomolo- 

 gist had visited this selfsame nursery only a few days previously and 

 had as completely failed to identify the species. I do not feel called 

 upon to apologize for failing to identify the scale, because no one man 

 (unless he lives in Washington) can know everything, and scale insects 

 had not theretofore come under my notice to any extent. My only fault 

 lay in that I did not seek to have the insect determined at once: but 

 at the time the matter seemed unimportant. Early in 189-4 a special 

 circular on the San Jose scale was issued from the U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture, and on reading it I at once thought of the appearance 

 noticed in the "Psylla" nurseries and wrote for specimens. These, 

 when received, left me iu doubt and were forwarded to Washington, 

 whence Dr. Riley soon wrote me that, while they were much dried up 

 and undersized, there was no doubt as to their identity. I at once 

 took measures to discover how far the trouble had spread in New 

 Jersey, and the owners of the nursery seconded my efforts by every 

 means within their power. In a i)anic, when they were first assured 

 that they had the scale and before I called on them, they tore out sev- 

 eral blocks of young stock valued at over |1,000 and burned them — 

 a very unnecessary proceeding as I believe. I soon found that while 

 many bearing trees were badly infested, the nursery stock was quite 

 free and that it was mainly old stock and preferably French stocks 

 upon which the new varieties were budded that were infested, and 

 that very few scales were to be found on the new wood. At my request 

 the owners furnished me with a list of the persons to whom suspected 

 or susi<icious stock had bf^.eu sold during a period of five or six years, 

 and meanwhile I visited nurseries in all parts of the State and wrote 

 to leading growers everywhere. Several trips were also made to lead- 

 ing fruit centers, and this resulted iu discovering the scale iu another 

 large nursery at quite the other side of the State — on the Atlantic 

 coast. Here the scale was much more restricted in the territory cov- 

 ered; there were only a few bearing trees, and the young stock, while 

 almost uniformly was yet so sparsely infested that when sold in small 

 lots the chances were all against the propagation of the insects. The 

 source of supply was discovered in a row of old Bartlett pear trees 

 which were completely incrusted. This lot of trees was at once taken 

 out and burned and arrangements were to be made to clean all stock to 

 be sent out from the infested block. A huge list of names was now at 

 hand, and by the courtesy of the United States Entomologist a supply 



